Staying The Course

I remember when the pressure was on President Bush to pull out of the mid-east, he kept saying, "We have to sttay the course."  His critics didn't want to stay the course because it was difficult and did not have a terminus date.  President Obama agreed to the notion of a terminus date and pulled out right on time but now we are back fighting ISIS over the same ground we had previously won because we didn't stay the course.

Couples find that marriage is hard and often in the first couple of years they give up because they don't see an end to the struggle in sight, because it requries so much effort, they didn't just ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after.  Divorce seems to be so much more defined with a clear terminus.  It appears to be a much easier answer than working out differences and working on problems for an indefinite period.  However, nearly 80% of couples who divorced before reaching their 5th year state they wished they had given it more time.

The workforce is another place where people decide so often that it just isn't worth all the grief, that there has to be an easier way, a better boss, a clearer picture of future outcomes.  Too often the next job has many of the same problems and the same uncertainties, and whatt appears to be your former boss' evil twin.  Staying the course, however, most often finds the individual overcoming the problems and rising in rank, priviledge and pay.

Have you ever noticed that most preachers seemed to be called to a larger church with a better salary rather than to stay and build a church, overcoming its problems and facing setbacks to achieve something better for the Kingdom?  Staying he course in church work can be very difficult but the largest churches with the greatest impact tend to be those with the longestt tenured preachers.

I know that staying the course isn't easy and sometimes it is truly not the best choice.  But in general, staying the course is the right thing and we have the power to overcome as "God can do more than we can ask or imagine by his power at work within us" (Eph 3:20).  And Jesus promises, "I will be with you always (Matt 28:20).  God is with us always and provide all the power we need to stay the course if only we will trust in him over ourselves.  Jus' Sayn.